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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Accept: The Discovery Of Mark Tornillo

The story of Accept from 2009 to 2011 is very simple. In 2009, nobody cared about Accept. In 2010, the band released their new album, "Blood Of The Nations" with new singer Mark Tornillo. The record set the rock world on fire, accolades rained down on the band from critics and fans. In 2011, everybody wants to know ‘what’s next’ for Accept. BraveWords.com sat down with the new voice of Accept, Mark Tornillo (ex-TT Quick), to find out more.

BraveWords.com: Your road to Accept started with a chance meeting with Wolf (Hoffman; guitar). What exactly happened?

Mark Tornillo: “Peter (Baltes – bassist) was working in his studio in New Jerseyproducing his son’s album. Wolf had gone to the studio to visit and they started jamming. My buddy, who is a drummer, was there and they started playing with them. The engineer around the studio brought my name up and said ‘call Mark up. He’ll come down and scream some of this stuff at you.’ They were just tossing around ideas and Peter gave me a call and asked me to come down and jam with them. Nobody said anything about ‘let’s put a band together.’ As far as I knew, it was basically to go down there and fart around. I was really sick with bronchitis, but I figured ‘what’s the worst that can happen?’ So, I went and the rest is history I guess. The product of that jam session got released on the Internet almost instantaneously. It was us live in the studio. Then I got a phone call and was asked “what do you think about recording a new album with us and touring?’ Once I said ‘yes,’ we went balls out.”

BraveWords.com: When you get into a brand like Accept that has a hardcore fan base – does it make you a little reluctant to join?

Tornillo: "Oh, yeah. This was not an overnight decision. First, I had to get it passed the wife. We’re set in our family ways. It’s not something you take lightly because it really disrupts your whole world, but she said ‘go do it because if you don’t there will be no living with you.’ She had a point because I’d be kicking myself in the ass…”